


Fixing Things

by Walutahanga



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Families of Choice, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Murder, One Shot, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 09:52:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6234019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walutahanga/pseuds/Walutahanga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Rangers find out ahead of time that Anton is Mesagog, Trent desperately tries to make amends. </p>
<p>(Alternate universe, dark).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fixing Things

Anton doesn’t look pleased when he opens the front door.

“Trent, we talked about this. You can't be at home while…”

“I told the Rangers.” Trent blurts the words out, figuring he might as well get it over with. “I told them everything.” Anton goes still, but Trent can’t tell whether it's surprise or the struggle to stop Mesagog surfacing.

“I see.” His father’s voice is carefully controlled. “Should I expect to see them soon?”

“I don’t know.” Bitterness fills Trent’s voice. “They kicked me out.”

His father’s expression shifts.

“Oh son,” he says and sounds like he means it. “I’m so sorry.”

His hand squeezes Trent’s shoulder. It’s the first time he’s touched Trent in months. When he’s not avoiding Trent altogether, Anton keeps his distance like he has some sort of communicable disease he’s afraid to pass on. Which is more true than Trent likes to think about. Certainly his father’s condition has wreaked havoc on everyone around him, the tendrils of death and corruption dragging down those closest to him.

“Can I come inside?” Trent asks, and Anton hesitates.

“That’s not a good idea...”

“Please, Dad,” Trent says. There’s no point in him trying to protect Trent. Anything Mesagog can do to him, he’s already done. “Please let me in.”

He sounds pathetic enough that Anton relents and steps back to let him in.

“You can’t stay here long,” he warns, shutting the door behind them. “Mesagog –”

“I know. I wasn’t planning on it.”

Inside, everything looks the same as it was when Trent left. Nothing’s changed at all, and yet everything is different. He’s shared a hundred meals with his father at that table, done his homework on that couch, spilt lemonade on that rug, and yet none of it has any meaning anymore.

All he can think of is the way Kira would tuck her bare feet against his side because it got cold in the Lair and she didn’t want to put her shoes back on. Or how Ethan would fall asleep on Trent’s shoulder in the car because he’d stayed up late the night before finishing some stupid game. Or the way Conner would grab his arm and drag him along when he wasn’t moving fast enough to suit him. And how Dr O was very careful not to touch them in any way that could be misconstrued, but he would still pat them on the back or show them the right way to get out of a hold, and Trent never ever felt unsafe around him…

“Why did you tell them?” Anton asks, bringing Trent to the present. “I thought we agreed it was better to keep it a secret.”

_No, you agreed,_ Trent wants to say. He’d made some idiot promise as he was stumbling out of Mesagog’s labs, brain half-fried. They’d never actually sat down and talked about it, or weighed up the pros and cons to come to a deliberate decision.

But that’s not what Anton asked him, and Trent does actually owe him an answer.

“I didn’t. Mesagog’s dream-monster did that.” His father looks puzzled, so Trent elaborates. “It tapped into our deepest fears, created nightmares we couldn’t escape from. We had to join our dreams together in order to defeat it, and that’s when they saw.”

He can’t forget the bitter words Ethan had flung at him the next morning, or the sting of Conner’s slap across his face. Kira hadn’t said anything, just looked at him like she didn’t know him. At least Dr O was still stuck in morph, so Trent didn’t have to see the betrayal etched on his face as well.

 “I really liked them, you know,” he says to Anton.

“I know. They were your friends.”

“It was more than friends. We were family.” Trent sees the spasm of pain that passes across Anton’s expression and adds: “I know you don’t want to hear it, but that’s what Rangers are to each other. I didn’t know until they kicked me out and now it feels like something was ripped out of me. Like I’m not whole. Does that make sense?”

“It does.”

Anton hugs him, and Trent hugs him back, not caring that Mesagog might come out, only caring that his father is finally here within reach. His voice is muffled against Anton’s chest.

“I just keep thinking that if I did something, somehow, to prove myself, then maybe they’d let me come back. Maybe they’d forgive me.”

“I know, son. I know.” Anton squeezes the back of Trent’s neck. He sounds like he understands and Trent’s glad because he _wants_ Anton to understand. He really does.

When the knife goes in Anton’s side, it’s unexpectedly easy.

The fragile human skin parts easily and the blade slips easily between the third and fourth ribs. Anton gasps, jerking in Trent’s hold, but Trent ruthlessly tightens his grip, pins them together as he yanks the knife out and drives it in a second and third time. When he lowers Anton to the floor, his father’s face is shocked, like he hadn’t seen this coming. Trent can relate; he hadn’t expected it to end this way either.

“I can’t lose another family,” Trent tells him. His voice is shaking. The knife slips between his fingers and clunks on the floorboards. “I’m sorry but I can’t do that again.”

His mum and dad are gone, and it’s become increasingly clear that nothing is going to save Anton. They were just fooling themselves by putting off the inevitable. All that’s left to Trent are the Rangers, and he can’t think of anything else that will make them take him back.

Anton’s eyes have turned gold, and Trent steps back cautiously, but it doesn’t seem like Mesagog has enough strength to surface. Anton’s face spasms, mouth working as the gold eyes glare at Trent hatefully, but the full transformation doesn’t happen. Anton’s face slowly relaxes and the gold bleeds away, leaving only clear blue.

“Dad?” Trent says cautiously.

Anton doesn’t answer. His eyes have gone wide and blank, face relaxed like he’s…

Oh.

Trent takes one step back. Then two. Then he sinks down on the kitchen, legs no longer wanting to support him. Now it’s over, he should feel something, right? Grief or regret or relief. But all he feels is empty. 

He gets out his mobile and is surprised by the red all over his hands. It’s always a shock when monsters bleed red. He dials Conner’s number and waits.

“What do you want?” Conner says when he finally picks up, voice unfriendly.

“I fixed things,” Trent blurts out. “Can I come back now?”

“You’re really asking me that after –” Conner pauses a beat. “What do you mean ‘fixed things’?”

“It’s done. It’s over. I thought about what you said, and I realised that you were right, I can’t protect Anton and be with you guys, that I had to make a choice. So I made a choice.”

“ _What_ choice? Trent, what did you do?”

Anton’s eyes aren’t looking at Trent accusingly. They aren’t looking at him at all. Then Trent abruptly realises that Conner’s speaking in his ear. Has been speaking for the past minute. Trent must have spaced.

“…Trent, _where_ are you? Talk to me!”

“At home.”

“At ho– get out of there! Mesagog could be there any second!”

“He won’t. I made sure of it.”

Another pause, then when Conner speaks it’s the voice of command. The Red Ranger don’t-you-fucking-dare-disobey me voice that Conner only uses in emergencies.

“Trent, stay right where you are. Don’t move a muscle. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

Trent tries to hang up, but his fingers are slippery and he drops the phone. He’s too tired to pick it up again, or go wash his hands or face or anything else he should be doing.

He leans back against the wall, watching the pool of blood cooling around his father's body. Doing what his Red told him to do. Waiting for his team to come collect him and take him home. 


End file.
